Susan Fisher put on her dancing shoes at age 3 and hasn’t been without them much since then.

Fisher’s Dance Factory will celebrate 20 years of dance instruction in Athens with a recital June 20 at the Von Braun Center, “Simply the Best.”

Fisher has expected simply the best from hundreds of students she has taught over the years.

Her students have won numerous awards in competitions in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and London, as well as acceptances and scholarships from the Birmingham Fine Arts School; The University of Alabama, and Birmingham Southern College dance programs and Ballet Magnificat.

Former student David Kayak dances with the Alabama Ballet and former student Marshall Ellis dances with the Orlando Ballet.

Her competition groups also perform for many community events in North Alabama and in the summer, many Dance Factory students study intensively with well known, accomplished teachers from across the United States.

Beginning at the tender age of 3 under dance instructor Marion Gosset in Sheffield, Fisher earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in dance from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While completing her studies she danced with the UAB Ballet under the direction of Steven Grebel.

She has taught at the Kathy Draper School of Dance, the Birmingham Children’s Dance Foundation and the UAB Special Studies Program.

“Right after graduation, I went to work teaching dance at the Performing Dance Arts in Huntsville,” said Fisher. “We had moved to the Clements community and I was traveling every day to south Huntsville. So I went to the Athens Recreation Center and began classes there in November 1989 and that is where Dance Factory was born.

“I found this land on Freeman Drive and built my studio and moved in exactly one year later.”

Fisher is hoping that as many former students as possible will return for this 20-year reunion recital, as well as her former dance instructors, including Marion Gosset.

“Marion started teaching me to teach at age 12 and that’s what I like to do with my students here,” she said. “I like to home-grow them like Marion did.”

Fisher teaches ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical modern, point and “all the technical stuff.”

She choreographs all of her students’ numbers from dance steps she learns at seminars.

Fisher also teaches seminars and workshops. She was a judge for the Thunderstruck competition in Las Vegas and just returned several days ago from Costa Rica, where she taught student of all ages from Costa Rica, Honduras and Peru in the newly formed DanzAmericas.

Her choreography credits include: Huntsville Community Chorus’s “Anything Goes”; Fantasy Playhouse’s “Sleeping Beauty”; state thespian competitions; Danscape; Panpoply and for many years, Poke Sallet Revival to benefit the Athens Senior Center.

Fisher said for as long as she has danced, she still finds it difficult to perform in front of an audience.

“Obviously, God wanted me to teach,” she said. “My babies perform and I perform through them.”

Working with Fisher is Francita “Miss Fran” Meaux, whose specialty is liturgical dance and teaching the very youngest students in the Dance Factory’s Pre-Dance Program.

A native of Louisville, Meaux began displaying her devotion to God through dance when she was growing up in a convent. “Le Maseran”—The Master’s Hands—is a movement created by Meaux and she and her students perform in church services and benefits, such as the NAACP annual banquet.

“My mission is to renew this ancient form of worship as commanded in the Bible,” said Meaux. “Dancing for the Lord is an elegant and moving expression of the love of God.”

The recital will be at 6:30 p.m. June 20 in the VBC Concert Hall. Adult admission is $10; children under 12, $5. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at The Dance Factory. Call (256) 230-0479.